I’m a chemist, studied masters in this field and have been working at a research and development company as their only chemist there for almost a year. I work with 2 biologists. I have gone above and beyond for this job, will stay overtime to help people or finish experiments (we have tight deadlines for funding and investors).
Since I’ve been working here, some of the biologists have been fighting to get to do my work, despite them never doing any work outside of following a protocol I wrote and even then, if it deviates slightly they can't do simple concentration calculations. I have tried to teach them but it seems they would much prefer me to do the calculations and not listen.
Recently we’ve wanted to do some work within a university lab (of which I have previously been part of) to use their proper lab facilities. This is great as it allows me to do more sophisticated things, for which I've planned for months on the side now and even sent a huge report with reaction schemes and possible ideas (we've all been asked to do this, but no one pitched in).
This is great news for me and it’s something I’ve been promised in my contract as well and when they first interviewed me. However I noticed one of the biologists getting a bit angsty, asking me things more than usual and trying to put forward some ideas despite them being fundamentally wrong I.e. the reaction wouldn’t proceed because he confuses functional groups. It is no big deal and I appreciated him wanting to get more involved and honestly don't mind working with him! He seems like he wants to learn.
At yesterday's meeting we had a short meeting and the big manager completely blindsided me. Everyone from the company was at the meeting, we were going through new milestones in our development process and stumbled upon the chemistry project. They said we would be having one person from the team being a part of this. Obviously i thought this was a no brainer. But to my shock, he tells everyone loudly that he suspects I may leave the company soon and therefore that cancels me out and has two candidates for the position of leading the chemistry side (it was between two of the biologists I work with).
He told them to fight it out, but the angsty one got it as the other biologist immediately refused. I’m astounded at this and in disbelief. I’ve spent years studying organic chemistry and poured so much of myself into this company. I was in shock, I said that I’m confused and not going anywhere, he then proceeded to say that he’s confident the biologists will be with the company longer, that I'm young and might go do something else (side note I'm not that young, I just look young). This manager has not ever talked to me or consulted me about this. I am not planning on leaving and afterward everyone was asking where I’m going.
Today I had a chat with my manager and they said that I have to understand this is a fear that they have and that even though i am the chemist and they need me, I'll probably be doing most of the work, that they will NOT take his name off of the documents for leading the chemistry side and that I can work alongside him but that he has the final say on everything. To me it screams I do all the work for him to get all the credit. I've been a mess ever since, and I have lost all motivation for anything. I tried again to state that I was confused, and I just got told that I can help the biologists out more with prep for the next few months.
Firstly I am in shock because even though one can try learn the chemistry, there are things that this person doesn't understand on a fundamental level. He has previously messed up experiments because he thought a certain molar ratio was not needed (he only does things in percentages, but doesn't realize they don't translate to moles in the same way). He has continuously used lower concentration buffers even though for certain reactions the strength of the buffer at that concentration is too weak to ensure optimal reaction pH. Not to mention actually problem solving and picking the right chemicals. He is a nice guy and I genuinely don't want to be angry with him and I want him to succeed and learn but I feel like I've been humiliated. I've consistently been praised for my work. It just feels off to me. He's also avoiding me and not talking to me like usual but I've maintained my friendliness.
I have an inclination to believe he’s gone and talked to them behind my back and convinced them to give him a better role as he’s been with the company two years. I have even wondered if I’m incompetent, but they just made me write three huge reports in two days all related to chemistry as no one can do them. The deadlines were unreasonable but I went above and beyond and will deliver.